Following yesterday’s publication of the Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) review of the town which once again listed the down as ‘heavily littered’, a disappointed Councillor Kevin Callan, who is also the Chair of the Drogheda Tidy Towns, has called on the Council to declare war on illegal dumpers.
At last night’s meeting of the Borough of Drogheda Callan also called for the council to tackle businesses that are not complying with the litter laws and the owners of derelict structures as part of the ongoing positive cleaning campaign being undertaken by Tidy Towns and other voluntary groups.
Cllr. Callan said it was disappointing after a year’s hard work by groups including the Council, Chamber of Commerce, BIDS, residents Groups and volunteers to see no movement in the IBAL rankings.
“We are out every single week collecting massive volumes of rubbish and some in our community just plough on dumping, it’s not on, enough is enough” he said.
“So much work has been done, and we will be continuing to fight on, but this report shows two very clear issues that now need to be addressed through the legal powers of the Council and they are the massive amount of takeaway containers that are littered throughout the town and also derelict sites such as on the Marsh Road where illegal dumping is occurring.
“We have focused on areas such as our approach roads, roundabouts, bring bank centres and parks and these have improved however these two issues on takeaway containers and dumping on private property need to be addressed.
“The time has come for us as a council to go to war on those who are allowing this to happen, we have the Litter Pollution Act 1997 which gives the council the power to direct businesses to keep the area within 100 metres of their premises clean.
“This is massively important in the case of takeaways as in a number of cases this is not being done at all to keep these areas clean which leaves the town in an awful state in particular on early mornings over the weekends.
We also have derelict buildings which are covered under the Derelict Structures Act 1990. If the council are aware of rubbish, litter or debris being placed on a site, there are powers to direct the removal by the owner or to clear the site and pursue the owner in Court for the cost of same.
The effort to improve the town will go on, volunteers and the Council with all stakeholders will continue the fight to clean the town but we now know a year on and with IBAL acknowledging these issues as well, we need to go to war and use our powers as a council to send out the message, the message is simple and clear, stop this activity.
“Fines range from €150 for those who litter to €5,000 for those with business premises that are allowed to be littered with no effort to clear same. The council also has the power to direct a business to have bins put in place to deal with rubbish relating to their operation such as late night takeaways.
“We have seen so many examples of waste, in particular takeaway waste and drinks bottles and cans all over the town and in particular the town centre and our parks. Even where we have bins and they are ready for waste, some people just fire their rubbish on the ground.”
